An easy revamp to IC that'll both revive it and introduce the missing PVP scale into the game

React · March 2018

As it stands now on XB NA, imperial city is forgotten. What was once the most well designed, engaging, and complex battlefield to utilize in PvP has become a barren wasteland where the only PVP combat is fighting a flag flipping boss-farming zerg on the pins, or killing the occasional lone ganker. Apart from the vendor changes (largely irrelevant), it has been a very long time since imperial city has seen any actual updates or new incentives added to it. That's why I'd like to propose the following;

Make Imperial city a separate instance from cyrodil that can be directly queued into.

If the Imperial city zones from each campaign were able to be queued directly into from outside the campaign, the population would rise exponentially for numerous reasons.

People do not like to ride their horses all the way from their alliance's respective keeps to the sewer entrances. Being able to enter on demand would immediately raise the population.
Having this ease of accessibility, the population in cyrodil could be mitigated slightly which should reduce lag in the population-heavy keep fights.
People would queue in just to experiment with a new zone that is "separate" from cyrodil (as many players outside of the PvP scene shudder at the thought of even entering open world PvP)
New and old pvpers who are seeking instant gratification will queue in just to experience PvP without having to spend massive amounts of time riding their horses, seeking out fights that are few and far between.
These new instances can offer new incentives, drawing in new players from all different areas of the game.

Add new incentives

In addition to changing the way you enter imperial city, I'd also suggest that each of the three piece weapon sets (agility, willpower, endurance) have their gold jewelry added to the game. This jewelry should be obtainable only as a extremely rare (significantly more so than the purple variants) drop from the respective treasure vault chests. With the majority of the current population in IC being there simply to farm bosses for tel var, having a new incentive added to obtaining key fragments would cause many to enter for reasons separate from tel var farming, which would be beneficial to maintaining a healthy population across all districts and the sewers.

I'd also recommend adding some sort of new untradeable collectibles as purchasable rewards for tel var. The xivkyn polymorphs are excellent and are still a goal for many; but with imperial city being out for several years now, it is time for a class of rewards to be added that those seeking something unique and un-purchasable. The obvious things that come to mind would be dyes (more desirable now with the new outfit system), emotes, momentos, and perhaps a new elite-tier polymorph (UNTRADEABLE MOLAG KENA POLYMORPH FOR 1 MILL TEL VAR PLEASE). By creating new rewards that are untradeable, many people will be enter IC who would not have previously. This will be very beneficial to the population.

To create a healthy, medium scale pvp environment: Limit the group size to between 8 and 12 players

Finally, limit the group size you can have within imperial city to between 8 and 12. As I stated earlier, cyrodil is designed with large fights (24-50v24-50v24-50) in mind. Battlegrounds, while very enjoyable and well balanced now that they are no cp, cater towards 4 man groups specifically. Having imperial city's groups limited to 8-12 players maximum would create the missing "scale" of pvp in ESO. Players would be able to build a group composition and coordinate in a larger group (12), while small scale PvPer's would be able to enter with between 2-6 players and not have to deal with the 24v4 scenario's that open world often creates.

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_RichLambert @ZOS_Wrobel

Please read this and think about it! It is about time a new pvp environment be added to ESO.

geonsocal · March 2018

all good thoughts...

I would just add to give us the ability to rez on any district alliance platform on death...

do that and players will once again congregate in IC to enjoy endless battles...

Ben_Spectacular · March 2018

Keep it the way it is. I like being able to farm tel var in peace.

React · March 2018

Ben_Spectacular wrote: »

Keep it the way it is. I like being able to farm tel var in peace.

See its funny, this is literally the only argument against an IC revamp, and it's a weak one. I too have farmed millions of tel var solo, and this change would obviously make that more difficult. Regardless it is a pvp zone, not a pve zone. Thus, changes need to be made so that players are actually participating in PVP while in IC, not strictly PVE.

Alpheu5 · March 2018

I miss running through the sewers and constantly having to watch my back and checking corners. Now when I'm down there I'm wondering why the mobs are taking so long to respawn.

Chilly-McFreeze · March 2018

What would stop me from having my maxed 12 man group run with another maxed group, maybe even communicate over discord etc?

Kybotica · March 2018

Chilly-McFreeze wrote: »

What would stop me from having my maxed 12 man group run with another maxed group, maybe even communicate over discord etc?

Nothing, but you have to admit that running two groups across discord is more difficult than just running one group with the same number of people.

Chilly-McFreeze · March 2018

Kybotica wrote: »

Chilly-McFreeze wrote: »

What would stop me from having my maxed 12 man group run with another maxed group, maybe even communicate over discord etc?

Nothing, but you have to admit that running two groups across discord is more difficult than just running one group with the same number of people.

Nah, this isn't huge cyrodiil. I don't find IC to be very needy as far as coordination goes. Just stay within eyesight of the other group and you wouldn't even need voice chats. Sure, it isn't as coordinated as a 24 man EotS blob that spanks you from around the corner, but anyway, you could still faceroll through the districts.

But OP touched the real issue: there isn't much to gain. The devs tried to give Tel Var back some meaning by adding the alchemy satchel and the housing chests but that's about it. He's right when he says that IC needs some new incentives but I'm unsure if golden 3 piece jewles are the way to go, especially with jewlery crafting on the horizon. Is it confirmed that we can or can not upgrade dropped set's rings/ necklaces?

Furthermore I'm really torn about the seperate que for IC thing. Sure, again good points that where mentioned but is that really enough to bait people from cyro into IC? I'd go a different way and have IC objectives have a little impact on overland cyrodiil. Don't know exactly what, maybe another player buff or stronger NPCs for your alliance's forts for owning all districts for a given time. Maybe even special respawn points across cyro (not quite sure about that). Or simply an impact on the campaigns scoreboard. So people who are interested in the campaign outcome have an incentive to set foot into the downtown.

Kybotica · March 2018

Chilly-McFreeze wrote: »

Kybotica wrote: »

Chilly-McFreeze wrote: »

What would stop me from having my maxed 12 man group run with another maxed group, maybe even communicate over discord etc?

Nothing, but you have to admit that running two groups across discord is more difficult than just running one group with the same number of people.

Nah, this isn't huge cyrodiil. I don't find IC to be very needy as far as coordination goes. Just stay within eyesight of the other group and you wouldn't even need voice chats. Sure, it isn't as coordinated as a 24 man EotS blob that spanks you from around the corner, but anyway, you could still faceroll through the districts.

But OP touched the real issue: there isn't much to gain. The devs tried to give Tel Var back some meaning by adding the alchemy satchel and the housing chests but that's about it. He's right when he says that IC needs some new incentives but I'm unsure if golden 3 piece jewles are the way to go, especially with jewlery crafting on the horizon. Is it confirmed that we can or can not upgrade dropped set's rings/ necklaces?

Furthermore I'm really torn about the seperate que for IC thing. Sure, again good points that where mentioned but is that really enough to bait people from cyro into IC? I'd go a different way and have IC objectives have a little impact on overland cyrodiil. Don't know exactly what, maybe another player buff or stronger NPCs for your alliance's forts for owning all districts for a given time. Maybe even special respawn points across cyro (not quite sure about that). Or simply an impact on the campaigns scoreboard. So people who are interested in the campaign outcome have an incentive to set foot into the downtown.

I get that it may not solve the underlying issue in the IC, and I agree with most of what you said. I was just pointing out that while it is easy to run in a split set of two groups, it is far easier to run with one, and it makes it harder to get past that "cap" since the first few people to join after hitting it must run in a far smaller group, increasing risk to them as only they can actively monitor one another's health pools if gank-attacked.

React · March 2018

Chilly-McFreeze wrote: »

Kybotica wrote: »

Chilly-McFreeze wrote: »

What would stop me from having my maxed 12 man group run with another maxed group, maybe even communicate over discord etc?

Nothing, but you have to admit that running two groups across discord is more difficult than just running one group with the same number of people.

Nah, this isn't huge cyrodiil. I don't find IC to be very needy as far as coordination goes. Just stay within eyesight of the other group and you wouldn't even need voice chats. Sure, it isn't as coordinated as a 24 man EotS blob that spanks you from around the corner, but anyway, you could still faceroll through the districts.

But OP touched the real issue: there isn't much to gain. The devs tried to give Tel Var back some meaning by adding the alchemy satchel and the housing chests but that's about it. He's right when he says that IC needs some new incentives but I'm unsure if golden 3 piece jewles are the way to go, especially with jewlery crafting on the horizon. Is it confirmed that we can or can not upgrade dropped set's rings/ necklaces?

Furthermore I'm really torn about the seperate que for IC thing. Sure, again good points that where mentioned but is that really enough to bait people from cyro into IC? I'd go a different way and have IC objectives have a little impact on overland cyrodiil. Don't know exactly what, maybe another player buff or stronger NPCs for your alliance's forts for owning all districts for a given time. Maybe even special respawn points across cyro (not quite sure about that). Or simply an impact on the campaigns scoreboard. So people who are interested in the campaign outcome have an incentive to set foot into the downtown.

Truthfully the discord thing is virtually a non issue on consoles. I wanted to propose this idea as a "group only ffa" where alliances where removed and anyone outside your group took damage from your abilities, but that would mean drastic changes to the base mechanics in IC, and zos/much of the player base are not likely to be in favor of drastic change. Thus I proposed it like this. Honestly, if a 24 man wants so badly to zerg a small map that they coordinate outside of the group system ingame, let them. Just implementing these changes would deter that behavior and overall benefit the population and health of imperial city.

I forgot about the upgrading portion of jewlery crafting when I made the suggestion of gold tier weapon sets, however that being said I certainly hope that it only applies to crafted jewlery as it'll completley invalidate sources of gold jewlery within the game currently (AP vendor, leaderboards, trial drops, etc).

I also like the idea of changing how the objectives work/affect over world, but once again zos is highly unlikely to make drastic, intensive changes to old content. That being said, an easy to implement more mild proposition may be slightly more appealing to them.

Chilly-McFreeze · March 2018

Liam12548 wrote: »

Chilly-McFreeze wrote: »

Kybotica wrote: »

Chilly-McFreeze wrote: »

What would stop me from having my maxed 12 man group run with another maxed group, maybe even communicate over discord etc?

Nothing, but you have to admit that running two groups across discord is more difficult than just running one group with the same number of people.

Nah, this isn't huge cyrodiil. I don't find IC to be very needy as far as coordination goes. Just stay within eyesight of the other group and you wouldn't even need voice chats. Sure, it isn't as coordinated as a 24 man EotS blob that spanks you from around the corner, but anyway, you could still faceroll through the districts.

But OP touched the real issue: there isn't much to gain. The devs tried to give Tel Var back some meaning by adding the alchemy satchel and the housing chests but that's about it. He's right when he says that IC needs some new incentives but I'm unsure if golden 3 piece jewles are the way to go, especially with jewlery crafting on the horizon. Is it confirmed that we can or can not upgrade dropped set's rings/ necklaces?

Furthermore I'm really torn about the seperate que for IC thing. Sure, again good points that where mentioned but is that really enough to bait people from cyro into IC? I'd go a different way and have IC objectives have a little impact on overland cyrodiil. Don't know exactly what, maybe another player buff or stronger NPCs for your alliance's forts for owning all districts for a given time. Maybe even special respawn points across cyro (not quite sure about that). Or simply an impact on the campaigns scoreboard. So people who are interested in the campaign outcome have an incentive to set foot into the downtown.

Truthfully the discord thing is virtually a non issue on consoles. I wanted to propose this idea as a "group only ffa" where alliances where removed and anyone outside your group took damage from your abilities, but that would mean drastic changes to the base mechanics in IC, and zos/much of the player base are not likely to be in favor of drastic change. Thus I proposed it like this. Honestly, if a 24 man wants so badly to zerg a small map that they coordinate outside of the group system ingame, let them. Just implementing these changes would deter that behavior and overall benefit the population and health of imperial city.

I forgot about the upgrading portion of jewlery crafting when I made the suggestion of gold tier weapon sets, however that being said I certainly hope that it only applies to crafted jewlery as it'll completley invalidate sources of gold jewlery within the game currently (AP vendor, leaderboards, trial drops, etc).

I also like the idea of changing how the objectives work/affect over world, but once again zos is highly unlikely to make drastic, intensive changes to old content. That being said, an easy to implement more mild proposition may be slightly more appealing to them.

Ah, I've got no idea how it is on console. I can only rely on my experience on PC.

I agree. Zeni won't change how campaigns and IC "interacts". At least not as long as IC isn't free for everyone. You know, P2W arguments and stuff.

kadar · March 2018

I'm in favor of anything that puts more action in IC. Coolest zone in the game, IMO.

incite · March 2018

OP, you have my blessing

ChefZero · March 2018

Make just one IC instance that is connected to all campaigns. Gained AP will count for your home campaign. Maybe it have to be No-CP.

Introduce an AP gain cap for kills and loot to 12 players per faction irrespective of grouped or ungrouped. So big fights are less rewarding and ppl hopefully will spread.

React · March 2018

ChefZero wrote: »

Make just one IC instance that is connected to all campaigns. Gained AP will count for your home campaign. Maybe it have to be No-CP.

Introduce an AP gain cap for kills and loot to 12 players per faction irrespective of grouped or ungrouped. So big fights are less rewarding and ppl hopefully will spread.

Unfortunately like I referenced in an earlier comment, zos is unlikely to change any of the base mechanics in IC, including how it actually affects the campaigns. This idea is supposed to be a sort of an easy to implement middleground.

Also, one instance would likely not be enough. Perhaps on servers like XB EU where pvp is completley dead one instance would provide a well spread population, but on XB NA and other populated servers one instance would just cause over crowding and natural zerg formation.

Qwazzy · March 2018

This would be a great addition to ESO pvp!

Murador178 · March 2018

We could also limit group size to 4 in IC. Ofc u can tryhard and go with 3 raids over discord if u rly... . Adding new PvP sets for TV stones and materials for jewelcrafting would increase the motivation the get more people into it again.

IV_Deity · April 2018

I saw this idea in another thread.

Make Imperial City part of the base game. . Keeping the dungeons and the sewers available for purchase.

Make the bridges in Cyrodiil connect with the Imperial City. I think this will bring players to the City in order to fight for control of the districts within. Holding these 6 districts and the 6 emp keeps will allow a faction to be crowned emperor/empress.

This would make IC relevant to the war in Cyrodiil. I know this would take a lot of work though.

React · April 2018

IV_Deity wrote: »

I saw this idea in another thread.

Make Imperial City part of the base game. . Keeping the dungeons and the sewers available for purchase.

Make the bridges in Cyrodiil connect with the Imperial City. I think this will bring players to the City in order to fight for control of the districts within. Holding these 6 districts and the 6 emp keeps will allow a faction to be crowned emperor/empress.

This would make IC relevant to the war in Cyrodiil. I know this would take a lot of work though.

I referenced in an earlier comment how IC's relevance to cyrodil is not likely to be changed. However I do agree with your point that IC should be added to the base game. Unfortunately we will have the "I paid for IC therefore it shouldn't be free" whiners who care not for the health of the city itself, as well as the sympathizers who claim "anyone who paid must be compensated for it to become free" accompanying mention of this idea.

Truthfully both IC and BG's should both become part of the base game. The PvP aspect is the least participated in of any aspect of the game, and as such any changes that could bolster population should be welcomed by any player who claims to be a "PvPer".

Who knows, perhaps as part of the 3rd anniversary of IC event we will see it added to the base game. One can dream, right?

Katahdin · April 2018

I think holding the districts should count toward the overall score.

I disagree with needing them for emperor though. Getting an Emperor crowned can be tricky enough as it is with just the keeps when there is resistance on the map.